Locally led agribusiness development in eastern Congo

We're Congolese visionaries and entrepreneurs.

We've imagined a better future for our country, one of the most devastated places on earth, and we are bringing it to life.

Surrounded by armed militia, crushing poverty, malnutrition and government corruption, Mavuno is pioneering a model of grassroots business development unlike any in our region. It is a financially, socially, and environmentally sustainable engine to serve the Congolese farmer.

What We Do

The “Centre de Developpement Rural” is eastern Congo’s hub for agricultural production and innovation. Occupying over 250 acres of land, it is an agribusiness of its own. It is a lighthouse of inspiration and a model of what’s possible for thousands of people. We multiply and sell seeds, perform agricultural research, conduct training on permaculture, host model farms, and more. We are also producing and selling tomatoes, fish, and chickens at scale and selling them in local markets to cover our own costs, which makes Mavuno a financially sustainable organization, unlike anything else in the region.

At the CDR, we have established the Mavuno Farmer Field School, which is a robust “train the trainer” program. Community leaders from surrounding villages receive top-notch training on improved agricultural techniques, understanding markets, financial literacy, how to access credit, teaching methods, and more. These leaders then go back out to their villages where they tend to a model farm and equip their entire community to flourish.

Many of the farmers we work with have brilliant entrepreneurial ideas, and we come alongside the best entrepreneurs to help them turn those ideas into a reality. We provide full spectrum support for these independent small businesses, including: accounting, branding, packaging, marketing, and strategy development. From plantain flour to juice to dried fruit, Mavuno Agripreneurs are creating jobs and value-added products inside the Congo.

Mavuno executes grants to provide aid to communities impacted by Eastern Congo's volatile combination of poverty and instability. We have worked with USAID and large international NGOs to conduct emergency food assistance in active conflict areas, and just recently helped in the response to an Ebola outbreak in our area of operations.

We operate a business that produces and exports some of the world’s best specialty cocoa. Unfortunately, it’s not very prevalent internationally because the decades of war we’ve been through have stunted production. We’re changing that. We want to bring Congolese cocoa to the world. Our climate, soil type, altitude, and carefully managed centralized fermentation and drying processes lead to some of the best cocoa and chocolate you’ve ever tasted. This business creates value and provides a market for smallholder cacao farmers, and provides another revenue stream for us to continue scaling our impact throughout the Congo.

Mavuno is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in the United States, and a registered NGO in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.